A University of Ottawa Fine Arts graduate, Brigitte Bélanger-Warner has accumulated over 20 years of experience in various fields of communications through a brilliant career in the media and public relations. Brigitte began her professional journey in the city of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) in 1989 when she joined the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she worked in radio for 8 years. She held several different positions at the CBC, such as assistant to the Director, on-air talent, researcher, Associated Producer and Producer. Also fascinated by the world of television, she worked as reporter and host for several programs at a local station in Ottawa. Her warm and unique style of interviewing gained her the title of “Best Reporter” in 1993 for her work in “Plaisirs”, a weekly cultural magazine. In 1997, Brigitte literally ran away with the circus, as she moved to Montreal, Quebec to join the world-renowned entertainment company Cirque du Soleil. She worked as the Corporate Publicist at the International Headquarters for over three years, until she was offered the position of Publicist for “O”, Cirque du Soleil’s water-based production at the lavish Bellagio resort in Las Vegas, Nevada as well as the prestigious Cirque du Soleil production LOVE, which celebrates the music and the legacy of The Beatles. After 7 successful years with the troupe, millions of dollars generated in international media coverage and hundreds high-profile encounters, Brigitte and her family left flashy Las Vegas for the peaceful green hills of Virginia, where she worked in hospitality as the Director of Sales & Marketing for The Clifton Inn. After three years, she was recruited by the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, where she is in charge of public relations, sales and marketing.

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has been working to secure sweetheart deals for Chinese green energy firms, according to reports.

Reid, who last week hosted the fifth annual National Clean Energy Summit at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, has been “pulling strings behind the scenes” for months on behalf of ENN Mojave Energy, a Nevada subsidiary of the Chinese-owned ENN Group.

After more than two years of secret negotiations beginning in 2009, lawmakers in Clark County, Nevada, unanimously agreed to sell 9,000 acres of public land to ENN for the bargain price of just $4.5 million ($500 per acre) in December 2011.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal questioned the “steep discount” ENN received for the land, which had been previously appraised for between $30 million and $39 million. The arrangement also included a bundle of tax incentives for ENN.

Several months later, ENN chairman Wang Yusuo spoke at Reid’s clean energy summit, calling for a “more open and comprehensive” partnership between China and the United States on green energy.

ENN hired Richard Bryan, a Democrat who served with Reid in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2001, to represent the company in negotiations with state and federal officials. Reid’s son Rory is a partner at Bryan’s law firm.

“Senator Reid has actually gone to China, has actually had visits with the chairman of ENN, the entire global enterprise, has actually taken a look at some of their developments there,” Bryan said of Reid’s involvement. “It would seem to me that Senator Reid would exercise his persuasive powers on behalf of the state of Nevada.” "

On this edition of Casino Talk, Brooke Dunn will be joined by Seth Schorr, CEO of Downtown Grand Managers Las Vegas, LLC and president and CEO of Fifth Street Gaming. Schorr began his career in gaming and hospitality in 1991 and has since worked with Wynn Resorts, The Bellagio Resort and casino, The Mirage Hotel & Casino, The Treasure Island Hotel & Casino and The Golden Nugget Laughlin. In 2012, Schorr was recognized by Vegas Inc. as a member of the elite "40 under 40." Tune in as Brooke Dunn sits down with him to discuss his career highlights and what he forsees for the gaming industry's near future. Marcus Prater, executive director of Associatin of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) will return to the show to give us an update on recent news surrounding the AGEM and its members. This will definitely not be a show to miss, so set a reminder and tune in!

Please join Melissa Studdard and Tiferet Journal on 10/21/13, from 1-1:30 PM EST, for a conversation with renowned poet and critic, Alfred Corn. Studdard and Corn will discuss Corn’s most recent collection of poetry, Tables, among other things literary and spiritual. Corn is a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, and, in addition to poetry, has published a novel, critical essays, a prosody manual, a book of art criticism, and a Proust translation. Corn, whose poetry has been widely anthologized, has been a recipient of the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine, an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, and the Rockefeller Study and Conference Center at Bellagio, Italy. As well, he received the Amy Clampitt Residency in 2004. Of Corn’s poetry, Carolyn Forché, of The Lambda Book Report, says, "Corn's formal range is everywhere apparent. He even attempts sapphics in English which closely resemble what might be accomplished in the Greek. But as he understands art to be 'always more than technical virtuosity,' his poetry never merely displays his considerable poetic skills, but rather becomes a mode of thought, an inquiry into art and passion, the limits of mastery, mortality, divinity, and the possible destiny of the human soul." To buy The Tiferet Talk Interviews book, a collection from our first year, Click Here.

Join us on Monday, September 23, 2013 at 7:00 PM EDT as we continue recognition of World Alzheimer's Month. Our special guest, G. Allen Power, MD, is a board certified internist and geriatrician, and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Rochester, New York. Dr. Power has been interviewed by BBC Television, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Singapore’s Straits Times, and many more. In Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care, Dr. Power addresses the development of guidelines for sustainable communities that embrace people of all ages and abilities. His critically acclaimed book won the "Book of the Year" Award from the American Journal of Nursing and a Merit Award from the National Mature Media Awards. His work abroad includes a Bellagio Residency in Italy by the Rockefeller Foundation and collaboration on the International Advisory Board for Australia's Dementia Foundation and the South Africa Care Forum. Dr. Power's contributions to the "Hand in Hand" educational materials will enhance care for patients and compassion for caregivers, plus enlighten the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Dr. Power is featured in the new documentary Alive Inside, awakening the healing power of music. As a musician and songwriter he has worked with well-known artists, including Peter, Paul and Mary. His song, “I’ll Love You Forever” was played by Walter Cronkite in a Discovery Channel profile of American families. We look forward to a compelling hour with Dr. Power, uncovering his blueprint to change the culture of care for families living through Alzheimer's, as well as other forms of dementia.

There’s always something new happening in Las Vegas and The Travel Brigade Show hits Sin City to find out what’s new for the summer of 2013 in a place that is always keeps you entertained on and off the Strip. We’ll talk about new shows like Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil, activities like Mob Attraction at the Tropicana and Score at the Luxor, a Warhol exhibit at Bellagio, a place where you can operate a bulldozer, a canyon where you can ride a zip-line, and the continued expansion of the pool day-club trend in Sin City. We’ll also talk about unique food and dining in our “Ya Gotta Eat” segment. Enjoy the trip! Follow us on Twitter @TravelBrigade.

Host Lori Wilk interviews guest Molly Merez, Ph.D, Executive Director, Ticket Summit. Org. In this episode Molly shares some of her inside secrets to how she earned multiple industry accolades and ranked as one of the top 25 Expos. Ticket Summit returns to Las Vegas for their conference and trade show, the premier trade show and conference in the ticket and live entertainment industry. Ticket Summit. Org takes place at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino July 17-19. http://www.TicketSummit.Org

There’s always something new happening in Las Vegas and The Travel Brigade Show hits Sin City to find out what’s new for the summer of 2013 in a place that is always keeps you entertained on and off the Strip. We’ll talk about new shows like Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil, activities like Mob Attraction at the Tropicana and Score at the Luxor, a Warhol exhibit at Bellagio, a place where you can operate a bulldozer, a canyon where you can ride a zip-line, and the continued expansion of the pool day-club trend in Sin City. We’ll also talk about unique food and dining in our “Ya Gotta Eat” segment. Enjoy the trip! Follow us on Twitter @TravelBrigade.

A native of Finland, Stefan Richter called Germany home for most of his childhood. He completed a three-year culinary apprenticeship in Germany, then moved to Switzerland to study at the rigorous Hotel and Culinary School. In 1993, he hearned his Certified Master Chef diploma from Fachhochschule Wurzburg-Schweinfurt in Germany. Stefan has cooked in some of the best restaurants in the country, including Celestina Drago's Kitchen, the Villagio Inn & Spa, Napa, the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, and the Bellagio in Las Vegas. "America has given me many opportunities. If I didn't leave, I would probably be chopping wood for someone else or something. But I came to America and have been cooking for 25 years. I love cooking, but I don't know how far I would have gone if I stayed in Germany or Finland....I love America' I've been here for 12 years and I would go back for money." After his stint on "Top Chef," Stefan opened his first restaurant, "Stefan's at L.A. Farm," in Los Angeles in 2010, and opened "Stefan's Steakhouse" in Tampere, (Finland) in 2011. A burger place is also in the works. Recently he competed on "Top Chef Seattle." http://www.stefansrestaurants.com/

When his favorite cat Biscuit goes missing, Peter Trachtenberg sets out to find her. The journey takes him 700 miles and many years into his past-- into the history of his relationships with cats and the history of his relationship with his wife F., who may herself be on the verge of disappearing. What ensues is a work that recalls travel narratives from The Incredible Journey to W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn. Trachtenberg ponders the mysteries of feline intelligence (why do cats score worse on some tests than pigeons?), the origins of their domestication, their terrible treatment during the Middle Ages. He also looks at the riddle of why any of us loves whom we love and all the unforeseen places to which that devotion leads us. Tune in to this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, as host, June Stoyer is joined by author, Peter Trachtenberg to discuss his best-selling book! Stay tuned! Peter Trachtenberg has taught creative writing at the New School, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the City College of New York, St. Mary’s College of California, the University of Iowa Summer Writers Festival, and Ashland University. He’s also taught in Bard College’s Language & Thinking Program. Since 2011, he has been an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

He’s the recipient of a NYFA artist’s fellowship, the Nelson Algren Award for Short Fiction, a Whiting Writers Fellowship, a 2010 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and a 2012 residency at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. The Book of Calamities was given the 2009 Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Ralph Waldo Emerson Award “for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.”

With the World Series of Poker set to begin next week, Casino City's Vin Narayanan and Aaron Todd draft their fantasy poker team and also discuss the recent attempted robbery at the Bellagio, the plummeting numbers in the World Poker Tour's marquee event and make their best bets